On
Wednesday's Situation Room, CNN's Jack Cafferty revisited his
anti-Sarah Palin obsession and somewhat predictably, grouped U.S. Senate
candidate Christine O'Donnell with the former Alaska governor, stating
it "feels like Sarah Palin all over again....O'Donnell has some
big question marks on her resume, just like...Palin." Most of the
viewer e-mails Cafferty read bashed the two politicians.
The commentator devoted his 5 pm Eastern hour commentary [1]
to the two Republican women. After his "feels like Sarah Palin all over
again" line, Cafferty recounted O'Donnell's emergence on the national
political scene, and wasted little time in outlining her negative
similarities to Palin: "Suddenly, everybody can't seem to get enough of
her. This is despite the fact that O'Donnell has some big question
marks on her resume, just like Sarah Palin. She's come under fire for
allegedly misusing campaign funds for personal expenses-just like Sarah
Palin."
The
CNN personality briefly touched on the Delaware Republican's
eleven-year-old "dabbled in witchcraft" remarks and her traditional
stance on sexuality before returning to his attack:
CAFFERTY: O'Donnell has also been in the spotlight for saying that years ago, she 'dabbled in witchcraft,' and had one of her first dates with a witch on a satanic altar- she really said that. And she's used her views on abstinence to rule out masturbation. After her last-minute cancellation of two Sunday show appearances this past weekend, O'Donnell suddenly announced that Sarah Palin has advised her now not to do any more national media interviews, and instead, focus just on local media. Based on Sarah Palin's interviews with Katie Couric, that's probably not bad advice. Those were disastrous, remember? I wonder if it means that O'Donnell is as poorly informed on the issues as Sarah Palin was. It all sounds so very familiar, doesn't it? Palin's resume [is] littered with goofy comments like saying that she could see Russia from Alaska, or not being able to name a single newspaper that she read on a daily basis. Sarah Palin quit as governor of Alaska midway through her first term. She often refuses to talk about a lot of the issues with the media, unless, of course, it's with the F-word network- they pay her. But none of that seems to matter. Sarah Palin has become this huge celebrity who is seriously being talked about as a possible presidential contender- which is just what we need. Remember the McCain campaign?
Cafferty concluded the segment with his "Question of the Hour" on the two women: "So here's the question: why do people like Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell attract so much attention? Go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile, and please enlighten me, because I don't have a clue."
Unsurprisingly, only two of the viewer replies which he read just
before the top of the 6 pm Eastern hour could be characterized as
leaning neutral, with the rest going in full liberal rage mode against
the politicians. The CNN personality, along with anchor Wolf Blitzer,
also made light of O'Donnell's witchcraft remarks after he concluded
reading the replies.
CAFFERTY: Carlos in Pasadena [California]: 'The popularity of the Tea Party lies with the media because the media loves the anomaly, the weird, the extreme, and the immediate. This, coupled with the quick solution, the sound bite, and an audience that has a brief attention span, makes the Palins et al popular.' Andy says, 'Palin and O'Donnell represent the ideal Stepford housewives. The older conservative white men can fantasize about them, and the older white women can emulate them. It's scary to think that candidates no longer have to talk about the issues, and can hide behind slideshow bullet points. Once again, beauty reigns in the white man's world and intelligence is a negative.'
Professor writes, 'I don't think the majority of Americans like either one of them, Jack. We simply like watching train wrecks occur. These two whackos are foolish people who think the rest of us are stupid enough to fall for rhetoric and populism.'
Nick writes, 'It's because their rhetoric is in the right place. The country is still going through a rough time, economically, and while they have shown time and time again that they do not have the qualifications to fix our problems, much less debate them, they still provide an accurate mouthpiece to vent frustration and anger among Americans. They're using the current situation for their own political and personal gain.'
Jean writes, 'Three words: pretty white women- looks and no brains. Who was more famous than Marilyn Monroe? And, they don't have to be blond to be ditsy.'
Tom in Texas writes, 'Harken back to some of Palin's old video, plus Ms. O'Donnell's recent admissions. You've just gotta know, as the song goes, it's witchcraft.'
If you want to read more on this- got a lot of e-mail- go to my blog, CNN.com/CaffertyFile.
WOLF BLITZER: Jack-
CAFFERTY: Have you ever been on a date at a Satanic altar?
BLITZER: Missed that one. (unintelligible)
CAFFERTY: Missed that- me too. (unintelligible) My life has got some voids in it. That's one.
BLITZER: That's certainly one I have (unintelligible) (both Blitzer and Cafferty laugh) Jack, thanks very much.
The CNN commentator has targeted Sarah Palin since the autumn of 2008, devoting 35% of his Cafferty Files segments over a month period [2] to bashing the former governor. Since then, Cafferty has derided Palin as "lame" [3] and referred to her as "Caribou Barbie [4]." Just over two months ago, he hypothesized that the Republican's popularity [5]
was a good omen for Democrats: ""If anything could overcome the
increasingly sour view of the Obama presidency, it might be this. Why, the Democrats should be positively euphoric."
-Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here [6].